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Easter Island probably comes close. Timing is probably a big issue. We are here now and have had the tech to begin looking for other for about a hundred years. In that time, we have faced loss of civilization via nukes, bio-warfare, ecological issues and just plain getting hit by a really...

Sound is only one part of setting the mode and I have found that sound loud enough to listen to often results in making the sessions harder to run. And if folks are listening to the music, they probably aren't listening to the game. If it is a dedicated game area, pictures and posters and...

Seems like a good call. The cost of maintaining each site was probably about the same. One has 90% of sales, the other has 10%. As long as the re-directors work, lost sales from dropping rpgnow should be minimal.

Several of the points sound very familiar to the state of the industry just before the great D20 collapse. When your subject matter has moved from a book on Elves to a book on The Southern Mountain Spotted Elf, your audience will be somewhat smaller.

2nd the best games for holiday family gatherings are likely board/card games. Preferably ones that are fast/easy to learn/explain. You don't want some young kid's first group gaming experience to be hours of tedious character design followed by running out of time when folks decide it is time...

Are you getting the gift for the Person who is GM or the gaming group's position of GM? If the former, you get something you think the person would like/need. May not even be gaming related. If the later, whatever seems to be needed but not there during the sessions.

IMO, the Pern series makes an excellent case study for this topic. The first two(order of writing, not chronology) books are pure fantasy. Young coming of age girl living in a feudalistic setting learns she has noble blood while she discovers she can talk to flying dragons, which can teleport...

Before all the long knives get drawn, keep in mind that WOTC has a track record for laying off a lot of folks once a product is mature and many of the promised books are out the door. There are a few threads on this forum discussing past WOTC Christmas layoffs. Once a product is mostly...

All a good political intrigue game takes is buy in from both GM and players. One downside is while the GM and Player 2 are dealing with aspect 3 of plot 4, the rest can become bored unless the GM tasks switches fairly often. This is can often be easier to do in an intrigue game then a combat...

I have lived through the journey from OD&D where minis were "maybe useful in some cases" to 3.5's "minis are mandatory" with the resulting increase in rules complexity. Many an OD&D combat was resolved in 10 or 15 minutes with a few die rolls and some verbal interchange between players and DM...

This was covered very nicely several years ago by Phil and Dixie: http://web.archive.org/web/20150428205547/http://www.airshipentertainment.com/growfcomic.php?date=20070617

There have been versions of tournament play for RPGs almost as long as RPGs have been around. I played a few of the 'Living X' games during the 3.x period. A different type of play then the normal table top games. I found that unlike most friendly games, players were far less likely to have...

DMs can't always afford to own copies of every supplement that is available. Even if they can afford to own every supplement, they may not have the time to actually read everything. As more supplements appear, the play testing requirements go up with each one as you not only have to test the...

Maybe Gygax was good enough at describing the scene that minis were rarely needed. Not every GM can pull that off nor can all players. Sometimes for whatever reason, the picture the GM is trying to describe just won't form in the player's minds.

In most cases, it is only ludicrous if the action fails miserably. Many of the better fiction tales involve heroes doing what most would call stupid things and achieving astounding results. If your players are doing the same thing, what's wrong with that? IMO, some of the most forgettable...

A lot of stories both real and fictional seem to repeat. Magnificent Seven vs Seven Samurai. Battle of the Alamo vs Battle at Thermopylae. In both of these, one has guns, the other doesn't. Still can serve as inspiration for a fantasy setting. And guns can mix reasonably well in a fantasy...

Sounds like Bob in the OP had a secret agenda item and the new D&D game was going to be a tool to complete the item. For the folks I regularly game with, the gaming sessions are a way to 'force' us to get together on a schedule. It is much easier to tell others you are 'busy' during the...

The 'Feat Tax' could be a way to enforce a disadvantage on the 'half' races that is paid on character creation. The flavor descriptions in previous versions mention that the halves are often shunned by both pure cultures, especially the Orc variants, yet I have rarely seen that played out in...

Thanks for this update. Pre-orders placed. The pocket editions are perfect for my gaming shelf for those times that I host a game session. Means the GM doesn't have to lug an entire library just in case a particular book is needed. Hope PF2 includes pocket editions. Wonder if the Sandpoint...

IMO the worst thing a DM/GM can do is forget that players always have the right to get up and walk away or if one of the players is hosting, telling the DM/GM to leave the place. Another bad thing is inconstancy. If fireballs don't light cows on fire today, they shouldn't turn cows into...